Solution to Pedestrian Problems

Today Atlantic Cities has a piece called "Police Stings for Drivers Who Don't Yield in Crosswalks: Does it Really Work?"  They cite scientific research and conclude that yes, it does work.

Recently in Fort Lee, New Jersey, a place many commuters speed through while driving to New York, a police sting operation was set up to ticket people who didn't yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.  This approach could certainly help solve the problem we experienced this winter in the areas around Wheaton of traffic hitting people who are walking across streets.

Can we have a traffic crosswalk behavior sting in Wheaton, please?

Wheaton Regional Park Train Now Open

2014 Update: The Wheaton Regional Park Train is open for the summer! This year the train and carousel have a Facebook page and are mentioned by Fodor's Travel as one of the top "8 cheap and awesome things to do with kids in DC."  Apparently our train is a replica of an 1863 train and some of the slides in the adventure park are 60 feet long!  The train's hours are:

May	Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 10am-6pm
June 1 - August 24	Open Daily Monday-Friday 10am-6pm Saturday & Sunday 10am-7pm
August 25 - 30	Closed
September	Open Labor Day, Saturdays and Sundays, 10am-6pm

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The Wheaton Train is now in operation for the summer of 2013!  It is open on weekends in April and then every day of the week from May 1-August 26.  See the Montgomery County Parks Carousel and Miniature Train website for times, directions, and the complete schedule.  Tickets are only $1.75 each so these are rides everyone can enjoy.  It is a multi-car small train that can accommodate adults and children and runs on a pleasant trail of tracks through the forest and meadow, past Pine Lake, joggers, and hiking trails.  Come ride the train and enjoy the park!

The parking lot is off of Shorefield Road and is also shared by the Wheaton Carousel, a big adventure playground, and several picnic shelters. Brookside Gardens is also easy walking distance through the park.

To get there from metro, get off of the Red Line at Wheaton and go north on Georgia Ave then turn right onto Shorefield.  Remember bikes are allowed on metro on the weekends and we have a spring break from track work until April 14!  Says the Metro CEO: "The spring break will give people an opportunity to experience the type of system we are working toward."  I am really enjoying the efficient and fast weekend metro.

Wheaton Regional Park Train Station, July 4, 2013, from the parking lot.

Wheaton Regional Park train as seen from a hiking trail in the woods, May 1, 2013.

A view of Wheaton Carousel, July 4, 2013. 

Construction Update: Old First Baptist Church of Wheaton Site on Georgia Avenue

From the far southwestern side of the Wheaton Mall parking lot

As reported here, Wheaton church to be turned into luxury condos in June 2012, the construction project on Georgia Avenue just south of LA Fitness and the intersection with Viers Mill Road is going to be the "Solaire-Wheaton," a 232-unit luxury condo building.

From outside Montgomery Royal Theaters

The project (that's the official website with photo) is scheduled for completion in March 2014 and will be 6 stories including a 2 level parking garage on the bottom (hopefully underground).  The new building is expected to have a swimming pool, landscaped courtyard, fitness center, and is hoping for LEED Certification. According to the Washington Post, "about 60 percent of the units will be one-bedroom apartments, 30 percent will be two-bedrooms and 10 percent will be studios."

The only problem I predict with this site is that it is difficult to get to by walking or biking.  I had to try three vantage points before getting a decent view of the construction (all of these photos are from March 9, 2013).  That area is hilly and has too much traffic driving through it on Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road.

Maybe the people who live in this new large luxury building will do something to help calm the traffic at that intersection -- if they walk!  Otherwise they could make it worse by driving.  I hope this new development also helps combat the idea that Wheaton has a lot of low-income apartments.

From the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road

This location is the former site of the First Baptist Church of Wheaton, which has renamed itself Streams of Hope Church and relocated to Olney, MD. Their new location is farther north on Georgia Avenue, just north of the Intercounty Connector Highway.

I hope they are happy with their decision to cash out.  The new building bodes well for our neighborhood and we still have a lot of churches nearby.

Bike Commute for Effortless Exercise

Daffodils in Brookside Gardens, March 30, 2013

An inspiring article today is a good follow-up to my blog posts (recently and earlier) about how to bicycle:

"Studies show that bike commuting is one of the best ways to stay healthy."

It is such a good thing to do because it gets us active and exercising without us having to devote any of our leisure hours specifically to it.  Most of us have to commute anyway, so doing it on a bike gives us passive exercise!  It is a perfect situation.

And with the weather warming up it is a perfect time to get on a bicycle!  I expect those racks at the metro station to be filling up soon (haven't seen it yet, ever).  Rest assured that if they are full you can chain the bike up to any signpost or parking meter without an issue.

Thoughts on the Silver Spring Transit Center

It has been under construction for years and was supposed to open in 2009.  I expected it to be finished soon after I moved to the area, instead it is still under construction and uncertainty abounds about its future.

I saw an article today in the WaPo "Metro could walk away from taking over Silver Spring Transit Center."  Apparently, Metro could refuse to take over the transit center if they don't agree that whatever repairs are made are good enough.  It sounds like Foulger-Pratt doesn't have a plan yet about how to fix it.

How about this idea... If the transit center is unrepairable, what if the land where it is built (prime real estate adjacent to the metro station) is put up for bids for privately funded projects?  Let a developer build a big condo building on that site with the requirement that the transit center be included on the first three floors of that building.  That way perhaps a different private developer would build the whole thing without charging the country taxpayers, and we would finally get a transit center.

Construction Update: The Exchange at Wheaton Station

Safeway Building, February 2013

Wondering about that huge building going up at Georgia Ave & Reedie, directly next to the Wheaton metro station? It is "The Exchange at Wheaton Station," planned to open in the summer of 2013!

Safeway Building, September 2012

It is a 486-Unit, 17-Story Apartment over Retail Tower being built by Foulger-Pratt. Inside it on ground level will be a large Safeway grocery store, SunTrust bank, Bergman’s drycleaner, and Starbucks coffee shop. There will be a parking garage for shoppers underground & a garage for residents above the stores, & the building is should even be LEED Certified!

Since my first trip to Wheaton last winter this space has been a large gaping hole in the ground.  I wasn't sure what the new building was replacing, but some research showed me that there used to be a "Zombie Safeway" there.  Here is a photo retrospective of that store's progress from functioning to closed to demolished.

I'm glad the new Safeway will be an urban building design!  That will be so much better than the old car-centric design.

"Ashes to Ashes, Dirt to Dirt" (from here), Safeway Post-Demolition, Spring 2012

The closed, space wasting, car-centric Wheaton Safeway in January 2010 (picture from here).

Picking up Trash is Fun and Rewarding: A Trip to Wheaton Regional Park

A bag of trash collected in the park

On a trip to Wheaton Regional Park last weekend, two of us picked up 3 nice plastic bags of trash.  It felt very good to make a difference in the landscape.

Motivations: keep the place clean so it stays clean (people are less likely to drop litter in a litter-free environment) & prevent trash from flowing into our streams, rivers, and eventually making its way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Trash free view of Wheaton Regional Park

Plus, it feels really good to help out nature in this way!  Try it, you'll like it! 

It is easy to retrieve a plastic bag that is hanging off of a tree or bush and fill it with bottles, cans, and other plastic bags as one walks around outside.  The amount of plastic bag waste is amazing, especially given the Montgomery County plastic bag fee. I can't even imagine the quantity of plastic bag waste there must have been flying around our parks before that fee!

I walked to the metro several times in the last week due to a flat bike tire, and also picked up a bag of recyclables en route yesterday.

Stormwater catchment system near train depot in Wheaton Regional Park